Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Rider Down! Justin Seriously Injured.

We crossed into El Salvador two days ago and were on our way to see an acquaintance at his bar. As we were passing through an intersection,
Justin was hit by truck. We got him to a hospital and paid off the cops to keep
him from getting in trouble.

After
arriving on scene, the cops did a perfuntory investigation and determined that
Justin was at fault. They had taken his passport, motorcycle, and other douments
and were going to keep a cop with him at the hospital until he recovered in
order to ensure that he didn´t leave the country. It was all kind of shady and I
know they probably just wanted money; but at the time we were more concerned
with being able to get him out of El Salvador as fast as possible. So, we got a
lawyer, settled with the other driver, had a form drawn up and notarized that
released Justin from fault, then got all of his documents back from the
Cops.

He had a serious compound fracture in his right leg; it was broken
in several places and the bone was protruding from the skin. An ortopeadic
surgeon from San Salvador came to the hospital and performed surgery last night
to put him back together. They had to reatach multiple bone fragements and used
a substantial number of screws and plates to fix his leg. All told, the surgery
took about four and a half hours.

Ás
of this morning he´s still in a lot of pain and probably more than a little
scared. He has been able to eat a little food and the doctors are hopefull that
he will be able to make a full recovery. They estimate that it will probably
take over a year for him to fully heal.

I'm currently staying at the
Hospital with him. We are in the town of Ahuachapan at the private hospital.
It's called "centro medico de ahuachapan". GPS coordinates as follows:

N
13* 55' 21.4"
W 089* 50' 38.0"

Justin does not have medevac insurance
(i.e. Medjet Assist); luckily, he does have Health Insurance in the states.

Unfortunately, and we had to settle with the driver of the truck for
$2,000. It was all a little shady; however, at the time we were more concerned
with getting his documents and being able to get him out of the country post
haste. We also had to pay $200 for the lawyer, and a $30 bribe to get his bike
out of the impound lot.

Additionally, Justin may have to pay out of
pocket for the surgery and hospital stay which will cost around $3,200 as well
as getting a flight back to the United States, shipping or storing his bike, and
whatever other costs he may incur as he recovers.

Like many of us who
embark on these kinds of adventures, Justin quit his job in order to complete
this trip. I have set up a donation button through his paypal account. If anyone
is willing to help out a rider who has been hit with some seriously hard
times, I know that he, his family and myself would appreciate it!

You
can click on the button
labled: "Justin´s Recovery Fund" to send money to his papal account.